The 27 million euro contract includes the delivery of the whole Coastal Surveillance System, including radar, signal processing, multi sensor tracking, system management, data base system and recording and replay based on the EADS product CSS Seatrack 7000.

Designed and built to ensure the integrity of the Estonian territory and territorial waters the system identifies and recognises surface and air targets in the responsibility of the Estonian Border Guard.

The system is based on twenty radar sites, including ten Short Range Radars (SRR) with sea target detection and signal processing capability and ten Long Range Radars (LRR) with sea and air target detection and processing capabilities.

The operational responsibility is allocated to four Regional Control Centres (RCC). Each RCC is connected with a number of radar sites. The number of associated radar sites varies from four to eight LRR and SRR, depending on the complexity of the coastline. The overall coastal operations picture of all four RCC is displayed to four operators in the National Control Centre which is located at the Border Guard harbour in Tallinn.

"As an expert for integrated security systems and platforms, EADS has comprehensively responded to these objectives by developing a sophisticated Coastal Surveillance System as an essential step towards extensive Maritime Security, and a Border Security Programme which has only recently been acquired by the Estonian government in order to meet European security standards.

"EADS itself has strong and proven expertise in the planning, integration and execution of Maritime Security Systems: through our variety of activities from commercial aircraft to complex naval and ground based combat management systems we have acquired a unique know-how in system design and large system integration," said Hervé Guillou, CEO of EADS Defence and Communications Systems.

"The new system allows our border guard to be of greater help to control more efficiently our sea area, to provide assistance to people getting in trouble on sea and to make our seas safer and more secure.

"As the new system allows us to get a comprehensive overview of what is happening on sea, we will be more efficient in supporting our cooperation partners both in Estonia and in our neighbour countries" commented Kalle Laanet, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Estonia.

The system provides, amongst other features, the monitoring and control of vessel traffic in the Gulf of Finland to prevent and avoid collisions and groundings of vessels. Furthermore it provides the detection and apprehension of smugglers using ships and by that it allows the prevention of illegal transport of migrants to the European Union via the Baltic countries either by vessels or helicopters.

The project started in July 2002 and is now completed. The system represents the largest radar-based coastal surveillance system designed for homeland security purposes.

In addition, Portugal's Instituto Portuário e dos Transportes Marítimos (IPTM) commissioned a Portuguese-German consortium, led by EADS, to build a Vessel Traffic and Control System (VTCS) along the coast of Portugal. With the twofold objective of protecting Europe's outer borders and at the same time improving maritime safety and environmental protection, this system is of strategic importance to the EU.

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